I thought I'd pick something classic and well known, but also something unlikely to have a clear winner from the start.

Gauntlet. The bottomless money pit of 80s arcade games. But this time you can't pump in coins to get further, you're going to have to go the distance on one coin. :-)

You can pick any character you like.Level warps are permitted, if you think it'll help.

IIRC the first 7 levels are set, and after that they're random. Level 1 has a warp to 4 and 8, and Level 4 has a warp to 8. One day my brother and I decided to start up MAME to see if we could finish the game. We gave up after level 250 and noticing we were repeating a lot of levels.

These are the default settings, so you shouldn't need to make any changes.

Note that Gauntlet uses an nvram file, so you might want to delete/rename this to avoid confusion if you've played before and have high scores.

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- One coin only (700 health)

- No continues or adding health with coins!

- No MAME cheats!

- Last day is Monday October 18th (11:59:59pm Pacific Daylight Time), 2010.

- High score wins.

- No savestates, savestate practices, etc. during the round.

- MAME INP recordings are optional, but encouraged!

- A screenshot is required to enter a score (press F12 to save screenshot showing your final score) or take a photo of the screen if playing on a real machine.

- If you're a MARP competitor on this title (like there are any...), keep in mind this is just a friendly competition amongst forum members, so maybe you shouldn't enter. However, if you're a forum member and this is a game you're good at and nobody knows about it, this is your time to shine!

- Even if you don't have a competitive score or if you don't *think* that you have a competitive score, please post it anyway to keep the thread fun & to give everybody a good sense of score ranges.

Best of luck!

Please if you are a Twin Galaxies competitor and such there is already a place for you, so let this be a friendly competition amoung us mortalsPlease make sure your sores are from games that take place during the competition period (no posting your best score from last year, etc.)

I played a run through and scored about 8000. Then I tried again but point leeched by shooting ghosts from the second pile of bones (as Warrior) until my health ran out. I scored 30,000. So I thought I'd accidentally made a bad choice for this competition, but with a bit of effort you can get higher scores by progressing with caution. It's interesting how much of a different play style this is from what I'm used to with Gauntlet.

I played a run through and scored about 8000. Then I tried again but point leeched by shooting ghosts from the second pile of bones (as Warrior) until my health ran out. I scored 30,000. So I thought I'd accidentally made a bad choice for this competition, but with a bit of effort you can get higher scores by progressing with caution. It's interesting how much of a different play style this is from what I'm used to with Gauntlet.

I don't understand how you got 30000. You have 700 health that drains at one per second, the white ghosts are worth 20 points. If you kill one per second, you get 14,000 pts.

1. Find a spot with plenty of bones.2. Stand so that any ghosts come toward you single file.3. Rest a couple of heavy books on the attack button.4. Go make a sandwich.5. Return to find a score of 29320.

1. Find a spot with plenty of bones.2. Stand so that any ghosts come toward you single file.3. Rest a couple of heavy books on the attack button.4. Go make a sandwich.5. Return to find a score of 29320.

1. Find a spot with plenty of bones.2. Stand so that any ghosts come toward you single file.3. Rest a couple of heavy books on the attack button.4. Go make a sandwich.5. Return to find a score of 29320.

What kind of sandwich works best?

That was rare roast beef with lettuce. But I think a combination of leg ham, beer and roast chicken would work best...

1. Find a spot with plenty of bones.2. Stand so that any ghosts come toward you single file.3. Rest a couple of heavy books on the attack button.4. Go make a sandwich.5. Return to find a score of 29320.

Gauntlet was a lot of fun when there were 4 players willing to pump in quarters. Now it's boring having to play as a single player. I played normally and could only get to level 6 with 25 thousand. Then I tried point leeching and got 63,680.

I played this game for a while and found it a tad boring. Having said that, I found some bones and a one way entrance and quickly got up to about 35,000. I quit after realizing I could get infinity using this strategy.

I played this game for a while and found it a tad boring. Having said that, I found some bones and a one way entrance and quickly got up to about 35,000. I quit after realizing I could get infinity using this strategy.

The trick to the game is to be able to find more health quick enough to make up for whats gone down... But knowing when to wait and clear an area first. I used to play for a long time, but I don't remember if I payed more then one quarter to get to where I was self sufficient.

btw, guantlet was one of the first PvP games out there. A friend worked at an arcade when I was a teenager, he would throw us the keys when we came in. I remember opening up the doors on guantlet with a friend and get to endless health. When we got to the screens 'shots hurt other players' it was a free for all!

Food gives you 100 health. Getting hit by a single level-3 ghost does 24 damage. If you can find enough food to keep up that balance, plus enough to make up for your health running down, then you deserve first place.

I didn't really get into this game back in the day, so I've been blowing this off. Here's a first try. I think I encountered only one food in three or four levels, and didn't touch with that many monsters, so I don't know what else I could've done to get farther.